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Reader response IV: Use this as a teaching moment

A group of people take goods from The Holy Grail store near Staples Center after Sunday’s Lakers victory.

This is from an English teacher at Santa Ana Valley High responding from today’s column (linked here):

“I shared your article with my class today and they all agreed that “knuckleheads” was too soft of a word for the idiotic behavior the Angelenos displayed.

I asked the students if they could have chosen one adjective describing the behavior in downtown L.A. what word would would they use. Here are a few of their choices:

Barberism.

Kaos.

Childish.

Wild.

Immature.

Reckless.

Thoughtless.

Uncontrolled.

My personal favorite adjective — Infantile.

In our discussion about the behavior, it was interesting to also hear the students say that they would bet that nearly all of rioters have probably never been inside Staples Center for a Laker game and more interesting that they observed hundreds of rioters wearing $100-plus Laker jerseys and Nike shoes, implying that many of them were financially better off than their stereotypical behavior would indicated.”

Richard Torres, left, owner of The Holy Grail shoe store, stands with a Los Angeles Police officer Monday outside his store that was looted Sunday night during the celebrations after the Lakers’ NBA championship victory over the Magic.

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